SMART ELECTRONIC AID FOR IMPETUOUS PEOPLE
Kabballi. Prashanth Siddharth. A. Byakod
Assistant Professor, Department of Student, Department of Electronics and
Electronics and Communication Communication Engineering
Engineering GEC, Huvinahadagali, Bellary District
GEC, Huvinahadagali, Bellary District sabyakod@gmail.com
Kabs.prashanth@gmail.com
Kavita. Y. R
Student, Department of Electronics and
Communication Engineering
GEC, Huvinahadagali, Bellary District
Kavitayr02@gmail.com
ABSTRACT---Independent navigation is a challenging task
for visually impaired people , to achieve this challenge this
paper proposes the Electronic Travel Aid (ETA’s) for
navigation. The study authors estimated the number of legally
blind would increase by 70% to 1.6 million by 2020.Legally
blind indicates that a person has less than 20/200 vision in the
better eye after a field of vision of less than 20 degrees in the
better eye.
To assist visually impaired people with obstacles free path
finding with vibrating alert and audio feedback mechanism to
safe guard the blindman from dangerous places. This device
consists of low power embedded system with ultrasonic sensors,
vibration motors, fire sensors, IR sensors wet sensors and a
battery.
This paper shows the useful aid in the detection of obstacles,
wet floors, ascending staircase, firing places, and android
communication for the audio feedback. Destination, present
location, date, time and way assister to travel in a proper
simplified way.
Keywords: Independent navigation, ETA, low power
embedded system, audio feedback mechanism assister.
I.INTRODUCTION
Vision plays vital role in gaining knowledge of the
surrounding world. The beauty of the world can be
experienced through the eye, one of the sensitive organ of
the human beings. However, the loss of vision makes it
difficult to run a normal daily life of a person. Even though
there are many instruments to travel then also it very
challenging task to live a normal daily life. The Travel Aids
such as White cane etc., the white canes are inexpensive,
light weight and can detect obstacles on the ground level.
According to the world health organisation (WHO) ,there
are 285 million people in the world with visual impairments,
39 millions of whom are blind, 246 million with low vision,
can we have a just look at how and what yhey have been
suffering in this busy life, can they live life long
dependently, the smart white can may have some of the
shortcomings, such as
Chaitra. N. Kambi
Student. Department of Electronics and
Comunnication Engineering
GEC, Huvinahadagali, Bellary District
chaitrakambi133@gmail.com
Chikkannanavara Radha
Student, Department of Electronics and
Communication Engineering
GEC, Huvinahadagli, Bellary District
radha97c@gmail.com
1) The user must have constant activity detect the
surrounding environment.
2) It detects only obstacles of ground level, the user
cannot detect the knee-level obstacles, this posses
the collision danger to the user.
3) The stick can only detect obstacles which are at a
distance of 1m from the user, That leads to little
time to take precautions.
To improve navigation and speed of independent of a
person, several researches introduced electronic travel
aid(ETA’S), the ETA’S may be available in many forms
such as handheld devices, smart canes and wearable
systems. Safe and independent navigation is still a challenge
for people who lost the vision.
According to the national research council, the ETA’s for
visually impaired people should assist in detecting floor
level as well as head level obstacles to achieve safe
navigation and understanding the paths surface environment.
The NavBelt, is based on robotics technologies to assist. It is
equipped with ultrasonic sensors and a computer. Guide
cane is a robotic guiding cane that detect only floor level
front way side ways obstacles. This is large inside and has
limited scanning area.
The Electronic Mobility Cane(EMC) detects floor level and
knee level obstacles. Usage of EMC reduces detection of
obstacles in the front, other systems such as CyARM, the
sonic torch and kaspa system, are handles obstacles
detection systems based on eco location.
The issues responsible for low acceptability of existing
ETA’S are poor user interface, functional, complexity,
heavy weight, large size, and high cost
To address the limitations of existing ETA system’s we
designed and developed the NavGuide, an electronic travel
aid that detects et floors, floor-level obstacles, knee level
obstaclesin addition destination present location,, date, time,
assist left turn, right turn, back turn, blocked front–way,
wet- floor and fired situations.
The ETA’s provides an simplified and prioritized K-Sohar came, 2008]17] uses audio to give feedback to
information about the surrounding. This paper covers user of the obstacles. It uses wearable frequency sound
design and construction of the ETA’s. platforms to convey the distance of obstacles.

III.DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM

II. LITERATURE ANALYSIS
The main aim of this aid is to get the knowledge as the
surrounding and provide appropriate feedback to the user.
The ETA’s use different technology such as sensors,
The ETA consists of three ultrasonic sensors, a wet floor
digital cameras to provide information on the
detector sensor, IR sensor, Fire sensor. RENESAS micro
environment.
controller circuits and four vibration motors and a battery
The feedback mechanisms used by the ETA’s are audio
for power supply. The assembled smart shoe is as shown
echolocation, 1991[18] used audio to provide feedback to
in fig.1.
users, it fails, to detect floor-level obstacles and wet floor,
The ultrasonic sensor are placed at vamp of the shoe, IR
digital camera is attached to eye glasses and audio
sensor placed at knee level of user and wetness sensor
feedback is provided to users via headphones.
placed at the soles of the shoe, where as the fire sensor
Laser cane is the regular long cane with built-in laser
placed at the back to shoe.
ranging system. The Mowat sensor is an example of
The microcontroller RENESAS and battery are placed
packet size device containing an ultrasonic air sonar
inside the shoe. Battery used for the power supply.
system. When it detects an obstacles, the device vibrates,
Microcontroller used for interfacing with system
there by signalling user.
components along with GSM is fixed.
Navbelt is portable device equipped with ultrasonic
sensors and computer, produces 120 degree wide view of
the obstacles ahead of the user. Problem with this method
is, the fact that considerable conscious effort was required
to comprehend the audio, because of the resulting slow
response time of the test subjects could not travel faster.
Russell pathsouder was one of the first commercially
produced. It had a vibrating range of 1.83 meters auditory
beeping of 0.81 meters it can be mounted at chest level,
neck level or on wheel-chair, although no longer available
pathsouder, paved the way for future developments of
ETA’s
In 1972 the ultrasonic cone invented by Geoff Mowat
expended the range to 4.02 meters and also provided a
switch to shorter distance, range of about 1 meter. The fig.1. connection of system components placed on a board.
divergence cone generated by the acoustic waves could
actually cover the size of human body. An ultrasonic sensor is used to send high sound waves to
The Neuron industries brought out polar on in 1980’s it return so that the distance can known. The ultrasonic
can either be handled or chest mounted this device offers sensor detect the floor level obstacles fig.2. shows when a
a range selection of 1.22, 2.44 and 4.88 meters (4,8,16 sound wave hits an object it is reflected off the object.
feet) and an option receiving either vibratacile or
auditable signals. However this device might have had
problems for mirror like surface at close distance and thus
probably reside signed in 2004. The prise it used to sale
was $892
Walk mate was developed in 1993 similarity with polar
on. It’s either waist mounted and hand held with both
audio and vibration options available. It project’s a U
fig.2. Obstacle detection based on Reflection of sound wave
shaped beam of 1.82 meters tall by 0.7 meters wide. The emitted by an ultrasonic sensor.
detection range was climbed to be 1.83 meters.
Mini guide US is the products for sale these days, this IR sensor is an electronic device, that emits i order to
product are starts from 2004. Providing the range of 7.92 sense some aspects of the surroundings. An IR sensor can
meters the praise is $545. measure the heat of an object as well as detects the
CyRAM, 2005[14] uses tactical feedback to user about motion. The working of an IR sensor is shown in fig.3.
obstacles. It is handheld devices. It doesn’t detect wet
floors.

fig.3.Obstacle detection based on Reflection of sound wave emitted
by an IR sensor.
The wet sensor or soil moisture sensor measure the
volumetric water content indirectly by using some other
property of soil. Such as electrical resistance. Dielectric
constant or interaction with neutrons, as a proxy for the
moisture content, fig. 4.shows the wet sensor working.
Another one is temperature sensor or flame sensor is
designed to detect and respond to the presence of flame or
fire, allowing flame detection. Responses to a detected
flame depend on the installation, but can include sounding
an alarm, deactivating a fuel line and activating a dire
suppression system, fig.5.shows the fire senor principle.
fig.4.labled part of wet sensor
fig.5. label part of temperature or flame sensor
RENESAS microcontroller RL78 is a new generation of
power-efficient microcontrollers that combine the excellent
CPU performance of the 78K0R, (fig.6. shows RENESAS
microcontroller board), with the superior on-chip functions
of the R8C and 78K. It delivers higher performance and
lower power consumption than previous microcontrollers
while enabling customers to utilize software resources
developed for the R8C and 78K.
fig.6. RENESAS microcontroller
Main purpose of the ETA
1) Create a map of the surrounding to detect the
obstacles in front ,left and right side of the ETA
2) Detect obstacles from floor-level to knee- level
3) Wet floor detections
4) Auditory feedback to through vibration motors
via wireless/wired headphones.
5) Present location of user and destination with time
and date.
6) Path assisting to use.
It also detects the fire by using fire sensor to safe guard the
user from the fire and provides an vibrating alert to take
precaution actions.
It provides a simplified auditory off so the user can take
the actions to escape from the dangerous area.
The block diagram of the proposed system is as shown
below in fig.7. with overall components interfaced with the
RENESAS microcontroller wit android applicants.
fig.6. Block diagram of proposed system.
The system with four vibrating motors gives alerts to the
sensor when an obstacle detects i.e., right, left, back ad for
staircase respectively. The android application is used for
feedback of audio output from the system like his/her
location, date, time, and cell phone ring setting so that user
can find his/her way easily
Functionality of the NavGuide
1. Generates a logical map of the surrounding, for
detecting the obstacles in front, on the left, and on
the right side of NavGuide.
2. Obstacles from floor-level up to knee-level are
detected by NavGuide.
3. Wet Floors are detected if stepped on by a visually
im- paired person using NavGuide.
4. Tactile feedback is provided to the user of NavGuide
through vibration motors.
5. Auditory feedback is provided by the NavGuide to
its user using wired or wireless headphones.
III.RESULTS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system provide the results of the ETA which
are more protective comparatively to the white cane.
The ETA detects ascending staircase floor-level and knee-
level obstacles in the surrounding using the ultrasonic
sensors and IR sensors, and also it detects the wet floors
using the wet detection sensors so that helps user from the
slippy accidents.
The android application which user the caps and GSM to
account the present location and the destination of the user
with date and time.
IV. DISCUSION
This system detects ascending staircase floor-level, knee-
level obstacles in the environment using ultrasonic sensor,
IR sensor, wet sensor, fire sensor.
This system may have four limitations,
1. Unable to sense a pit or downhill
2. Unable to sense down stairs
3. It serves a wet floor only after a user steps on it
4. Sometime network may not available as we used
GSM for android application.

However, a downhill can be detected using additional

ultrasonic sensors facing towards the ground in the soles to
give the feedback on the distance. it is not able to avoid
accidents that are likely too occur at the interface of dry
ground and wet ground due to slipper floor.
The NavGuide provide feedback to the user using a wired or
wireless headphones. In case of wireless headphone is used
by the user an electromagnetic interface generated by an
external source can potentially affect the feedback provided
by the system to the consumer.

V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

This paper presented a novel solution, NavGuide, for visu-

ally impaired people. The NavGuide provides solutions to
four fundamental shortcomings of the exiting,
1. It detects wet floor to avoid slipping accidents
2. It detects floor- level and knee- level obstacles
3. It provides simplified and prioritized information to
a user’s tactile and auditory senses.
4. It helps to user about his/her location and address
and cell phone ringing setting
5. Cheaper and light weight
In the future, the proposed system can be modified using
artificial intelligence techniques that would forecast the
human health condition and generate alerts. The next
version of NavGuide can use commercially available RFID
readers and passive ultra high frequency RFID tags to detect
human object interactions in the form of motion and touch.
Moreover, RFID reader and tags can also be use to identify
objects.